newbie! :) Need advice for affordable AI resorts!!

Hi everyone! This site is great! I'm so glad I stumbled upon it. I'm sure you all will be my number one resource for all my wedding planning!!

Right now my biggest question is where?? I am planning on a July 2011 wedding and I'd like a Caribbean location, but thats all I've decided on so far. Here are my top 5 most important things I want to find in a resort:

1- affordable all inclusive resort for our guests 2- great beach and gazebo options for the ceremony 3- good food and good service! 4- I dont care about the size, but I do want the ceremony and the reception to be as private as possible (so maybe somewhere that lets you rent out private bars/restaurants/rooms for the receptions, and private as can be ceremony options...) 5- good on-site wedding coordinators (I'll need all the help I can get!!)

I know this is a big list that prob. covers a vast amount of resorts all over but it will def. be a big help to me to have reviews from brides (instead of just tripadvisor). It gets to be a little overwhelming trying to click through all the different posts on so many different resorts!

Congratulations and welcome to the forum! You have come to the right place and I'm sure you will find what you are looking for. Check out the Riviera Maya in Mexico (Playa Del Carmen, Tulum area) as well as Cancun. They have tons of AIs and fairly inexpensive for what you get.

Congrats and welcome to the forum! First narrow down at least 2-3 of your top locations. Then just start researching the resorts in that area that have what you are looking for. I narrowed down my search by using expedia and tripadvisor first. Then once I found my top locations and a few resorts I liked I came on here and read a few reviews from past brides. My list kept getting smaller and smaller and then boom, it all falls into place. Good luck with all the planning!

Congrats and welcome to the forum! I would definitely agree to narrow it down to 3-4 resorts to choose from. I enlisted the help of a travel agent to help with all of my planning! They are actually very affordable and the help she has provided has been amazing. If you are going for carribean location for a bit less $ I would check out the Riviera Maya - there are a TON of AI's that have great wedding packages as well as ammenities for your guests. Good luck!

My bit of advice if your looking for qaulity at a budget, is to find out about brand new hotels opening in 2011... for the past 5 years we have done this for all our holidays and found that we get 4/5* new hotels at similar prices to existing 3/4*. I have been informed that the hotels and agents do this to ensure they get customers in, or with no reviews they might only get half booked.

If your getting married in July, 99% of the teething problems will have been ironed out, all final touches should have been completed and everything will still be in new condition and in the latest design fashion.

Dont listen to all the holidays from hell stories about new built hotels, they tend to be new builds by small companies or single ownerships. If you go for a big name, Riu / Gran Bahia...etc, there should be no problems.

My bit of advice if your looking for qaulity at a budget, is to find out about brand new hotels opening in 2011... for the past 5 years we have done this for all our holidays and found that we get 4/5* new hotels at similar prices to existing 3/4*. I have been informed that the hotels and agents do this to ensure they get customers in, or with no reviews they might only get half booked.

If your getting married in July, 99% of the teething problems will have been ironed out, all final touches should have been completed and everything will still be in new condition and in the latest design fashion.

Dont listen to all the holidays from hell stories about new built hotels, they tend to be new builds by small companies or single ownerships. If you go for a big name, Riu / Gran Bahia...etc, there should be no problems.